Gender Of Household Head Research Articles

Productivity and Technical Efficiency Variability among Small-Holder Cotton Farmers in Tanzania

This study assessed the productivity and technical efficiency variability among small-holder cotton farmers in Bunda district, Tanzania. The efficiency analysis results have shown that the scores of technical efficiency sample of contract farmers varied from 1.75% to 87.07%, with an average of 46.05%. The implication of this is that there existed considerable technical deficiency in cotton farming. That is to say, usually, small-holder cotton contract farmers in the investigation region incurred loss of about 53.95% in outputs as a result of technical deficiency. The sources of inefficiency for contract farmers were experience of contract farmers, gender of household head and owning Television (TV)On the other hand, non-contract small-holder farmers’ technical efficiencies varied from 3.94% to 82.05%, having a mean of 46.79%. Usually, small-holder non-contract farmers in the investigation region incurred loss of about 53.21% in outputs as result of technical deficiency. The implication of this is that output average can be raised by at least 53.21% through the application of resources available as well as the given technology if the deficiency factors are addressed fully. The source of inefficiency for non-contract farmers is owning TV.It is recommended that young farmers need to be encouraged to join contract farming in order to get high productivity, more female headed households should be encouraged to participate in contract farming, both contract and non-contract farmers should watch TV programs which are educative and can assist them gain farm management knowledge for high productivity and lastly, ginners are required to provide more services in exchange of exclusive purchasing rights as agreed when signing contracts.

The Effect of Agricultural Commercialization on Household Food Security among Smallholder Farmers in Zhombe North Rural District of Zimbabwe

Background: Achievement of food security has become one of the major challenges of most developing countries, including Zimbabwe. This study was designed to investigate the effect of agricultural commercialization on household food security. Methods: This study used cross-sectional data for the 2017/18 farming season collected from 165 smallholder farmer households in Zhombe north rural district in Zimbabwe. Instrumental variable regression model was applied for data analysis over the effect of agricultural commercialization. Agricultural commercialization was measured using the crop output market participation share (COMPS). Results: The results revealed that COMPS, household head age, household head gender, and income per capita had a significant positive influence on household food security. Conclusions: The results indicate that agricultural commercialization and socio-economic characteristics have a role to play in defining the household’s food security. Therefore, the findings recommend policies that would promote agricultural commercialization, which improve household food security in turn. The study recommends policymakers to promote agricultural commercialization, since it positively contributed towards household food security. In addition, young-headed, female-headed, and low-income earning households that were identified as the food insecure households.

Household structure and concurrent stunting and overweight among young children in Indonesia.

To examine the association of household type and household composition with concurrent stunting and overweight in young children from urban and rural Indonesia. This study is a secondary data analysis using a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. Household structure was analysed as household type, household size, number of working adults, number of dependent adults and children, and household head's gender. We defined 'concurrent stunting and overweight' as height-for-age Z-score <-2 and weight-for-height Z-score >+2 based on WHO growth standards. Multivariable logistic regression to test the aforementioned association was performed separately for urban and rural areas. Data were from Indonesia Basic Heath Research 2013. Children aged 2-5 years (n 45 050). The prevalence of concurrent stunting and overweight children was 5·6 %. In rural areas, this prevalence differed significantly by household types and the highest prevalence was among children in nuclear two-parent households (6·8 %). In rural areas, children in extended households had lower odds of concurrent stunting and overweight than those from nuclear households (OR = 0·73, 95 % CI 0·59, 0·92). In urban areas, household size and number of working adults were significantly associated with the decreased odds of concurrent stunting and overweight in children. Household structure was associated with children's concurrent stunting and overweight in urban and rural regions of Indonesia. The patterns of the association might differ between urban and rural regions, but no significant interaction term was found.

Determinant Factors of Working Children based on Conditional Logistics Regression for Matched Pairs Data

Working children may create problem since it relates to human right as well as to the development of children especially in getting sufficient education. This paper discusses determinant factors of working children by using conditional logistics regression for matched pairs data. Matching is employed to adjust confounding factors and to avoid bias. In this paper there are three confounding factors that have been considered, i.e. residential area, gender, and income of household head. The results showed that the conditional regression model outperformed the standard regression model. The number of household members, whether the head of household was married or single, age of the head of household, educational attainment of the head of household, as well as the work status of the head of household were the determinant factors of the working children.

Determinants of smallholder farmers\u2019 adaptation strategies to the effects of climate change: Evidence from northern Uganda

BackgroundClimate change poses a threat to the sustainability of food production among small-scale rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa that are dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Understanding farmers’ adaptations and the determinants of their adaptation strategies is crucial in designing realistic strategies and policies for agricultural development and food security. The main objectives of this study were to identify the adaptation strategies used by smallholder farmers to counter the perceived negative effects of climate change in northern Uganda, and factors influencing the use of specific adaptation strategies. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect data from 395 randomly selected smallholder farmers’ household heads across two districts by the administration of a semi-structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the factors influencing farmers’ adaptation to climate change.ResultsThe three most widely practiced adaptation strategies were planting of different crop varieties, planting drought-resistant varieties, and fallowing. Results of the binary logit regression model revealed that marital status of household head, access to credit, access to extension services, and farm income influenced farmers’ adoption of planting drought-resistant varieties as an adaptation strategy while access to credit, annual farm income, and time taken to market influenced adoption of planting improved seeds. Gender of household head and farm income had a positive influence on farmers’ adoption of fertilizer and pesticide use. Farming experience, farm income, and access to extension services and credit influenced farmers’ adoption of tree planting. Household size, farming experience, and time taken to market had positive influence on the use of fallowing, while size of land cultivated significantly influenced farmers’ planting of different crop varieties as an adaptation strategy.ConclusionFindings of the study suggest there are several factors that work together to influence adoption of specific adaptation strategies by smallholder farmers. This therefore calls for more effort from government to strengthen the provision of agricultural extension services by improving its climate information system, providing recommended agricultural inputs and training farmers on best agronomic practices to enhance their holistic adaptation to the effect of climate change.

Multidimensional poverty of pastoralists and implications for policy in Boorana rangeland system, Southern Ethiopia

Poverty is pervasive in Ethiopia. Despite its experience of promising economic growth, the development process of Ethiopia has not equitably benefited pastoralists, where multidimensional deprivation11Deprivation is used synonymously with poverty throughout this study. is deeply entrenched. This study argues that pastoral poverty is the result of multifaceted indicators. This study has also practical implications to inform policymakers on how to reduce pastoralist poverty. The study was based on Alkire and Foster method to analyze households cross-sectional survey data (n = 332). Various descriptive statistics and logit model was used to analyze the data. The result showed that 87.3% of households were multidimensionally poor with 62.1% of intensity of poverty. Multidimensional poverty index (MPI) for Boorana pastoralists was high (54.2%). The majority of Boorana pastoralist households were deprived of cooking fuel, drinking water, electricity, ownership of durable assets, housing, child school attendance, and years of schooling. Deprivation in education was the largest contributor to MPI followed by standard of living. Econometric results showed that multidimensional poverty is determined by household head gender and age, size of cultivated land, highest education level of a household member, sanitation, home to center/town distance, and production per hectare of land. The result implied that much works are needed to obviate the factors associated with multidimensional poverty of the household. The study proposes that improvement of pastoralist access to education and standard of living through improving pastoralist access to education, electricity, clean water, and health facilities should be a priority for policy on poverty alleviation.

Does Minimum Tillage Improve Smallholder Farmers' Welfare? Evidence from Southern Tanzania

This study evaluated the welfare effects of minimum tillage among smallholder households in Southern Tanzania. A propensity score matching technique was employed to assess the causal impact of adopting minimum tillage using data from a random sample of 608 households. Results indicated that minimum tillage adoption is influenced by gender of the household head, asset index, training on personal values, drought experience, farmer organization and access to NGO information. Minimum tillage also impacts positively on smallholder households' per capita net crop income with the algorithms ranging between 162,430 – 192,208 Tanzania shillings. Further, it reduces the total household labor demands allowing the households to engage in other income-generating activities with an average of -15.67 labor per man-days. Based on this, the authors recommend supporting households to use complementary farm inputs, credit access, and extension-specific information to improve the intensity of adopting minimum tillage.

Socio demographic determinants of BMI of Pakistani women: An evidence from PDHS (2017-18) using quantile regression analysis.

To explore the socio-demographic determinants of nutritional status of Pakistani women. The retrospective secondary-data study was conducted at Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Pakistan from March to July 2019, and comprised a review of the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18 for which the data-collection period was from November 22, 2017, to April 30, 2018. Body mass index was taken as a reflection of the women's nutritional status. Ordinary least square and quantile regression models were used for statistical analysis. Age, education, frequency of watching TV, wealth index, husband's education and region showed a positive effect on women's body mass index, while age of women at first birth, women's working status, gender of household head and region showed negative effect on women's body mass index (p<0.05). Overweight/obesity was found to be a more serious problem compared to under-nutrition in Pakistani women.

Determinants of Households’ Vulnerability to Extreme Heat: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study from India

Background: High ambient temperature is a significant public health problem as it is associated with high heat related morbidity and mortality. We aimed to identify the factors associated with heat vulnerability, and the coping practices among Indian urbanites of Angul, and Kolkata.Methods: A cross-sectional study included 500 households (HHs) from each city with almost equal distribution of slum and non-slum HHs in the year 2020. Information was collected on sociodemographic, household characteristics, exposure, sensitivity and coping practices to heat and the heat illness history reported during the summer. Factors were computed to a Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI). Bi-variate and multi-variable logistic regression analysis used with HVI as the outcome variable to identify the determinants of high vulnerability to heat.Result: The results have shown that some common and some different factors are responsible for determining heat vulnerability of a household across different cities. For Angul, the factors which influence vulnerability are more number of rooms in houses, use of cooling methods like ACs, having co-morbid conditions, gender of household head and distance from nearby PHC. For Kolkata, the factors are unemployment, income, number of rooms, sleeping pattern, avoidance of non-veg food, sources of water, Co-morbidities and distance from the PHC.Conclusion: The study shows that every city has different set of variables that influence vulnerability and each factor should be considered for designing plans to mitigate vulnerability to extreme heat.

Determinants of Contract Farming Adoption and its Impact on Productivity of Smallholder Cotton Producers in Tanzania

The focus of this paper was on the determinants of contract farming adoption and its impact on productivity to smallholder cotton producers in Bunda District, Tanzania. A survey of 220 contract farmers and 194 non-contract farmers was done by the researcher through personally administered questionnaires. Results from the treatment effects model show that gender of household head, household head age, experience in cotton cultivation, obtaining loan from other sources, being wage-earner, owning cattle, and owning bicycle had influence on adopting contract farming. However, education of household head, household size, off farm activities, owning motorcycle and radio had no influence on adopting contract farming. With regard to impact of contract farming adoption to productivity of smallholder cotton farmers in the investigation region, findings show that there is insignificant impact due to late supply of inputs to farmers by ginners, sprayers were not given on loan basis to farmers for spraying their farms in order to control pests and cultivation service was provided at TShs. 30,000/= upfront which was not afforded by farmers. In this case, Tanzania Cotton Board (TCB) should launch major campaign to educate farmers and ginners on the advantages of contract farming, secondly, ginners should be instructed to supply inputs (cotton seed and pesticides) to farmers timely and lastly ginners should provide sprayers and cultivation services to farmers as agreed when signing contract. Otherwise, contract farming adoption for the purpose of increasing productivity will be a nightmare.

Determinants of Household Poverty Status in Kediri City

Analyses of the causes and the characteristics of poverty at micro levels provide more efficient strategies for the attainment of main Sustainable Development Goals. This study aimed to analyze the extent to which the characteristics of individuals, households, and communities influence the probability of household poverty status. The 2019 Social Welfare Integrated Data and Village Potential Data of Kediri City were analyzed using an ordered logit regression model and then interpreted based on marginal effect calculation. The study found that household heads’ squared-age, household members’ education, household members’ occupation, household head gender (female), ownership of assets, access to the internet, access to proper sanitation, and access to financial institutions reduced the probability of households being categorized as very poor and poor. This finding indicated that household productivity influenced by the household head’s characteristics in managing productive assets, supported by access to infrastructure, could increase the household's welfare. However, the household head’s age and marital status, dependency ratio, and access to health facilities increased household’s probability of being very poor and poor. Policies regarding poverty must be adjusted to the poverty characteristics and status. Improving access, equalizing education, and improving job opportunity and infrastructure management that ensure accessibility and enhancement in service quality need to be made to increase the status of households with the lowest 40% welfare in Kediri City. Policies regarding poverty should be focused more on social programs for very poor and poor households. Meanwhile, those near-poor and vulnerable-to-poor need more empowering programs.

The Socio-Economic Determinants of Child Educational Attainment in Pakistan

The main purpose of conducting this study was to explore the socio-economic determinants of child educational attainment in Pakistan. Data on selected variables is extracted from nationally representative survey of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) 2013-14. The study considers the children of age 5-18 years who ever attended any or currently attending any educational institution. Censored Ordered Probit model is employed. The results at aggregate level reveal that child’s gender, child’s age, age of household’s head, parental education, household assets and availability of private schools positively affect child educational attainment in Pakistan. Children belong to Baluchistan province and urban region of Pakistan also get more education as compare to reference categories. Gender of household head and distance to school has negative effect on child educational attainment. To explore the inconsistency in effect of these factors across region and across gender, separate analysis is conducted for urban, rural, male and female sample. The results of gender specific analysis indicate that income of the household, region of residence (urban) and annual school fee are the main factors causing gender disparity whereas estimates at regional level analysis show that parental education, agricultural land ownership and, distance to school are the factors responsible for regional disparity in child educational attainment.

Community Perceptions of Mangrove Ecosystem Services and Their Determinants in the Rufiji Delta, Tanzania

Understanding how local communities perceive and depend on mangrove ecosystem services (MES) is important for translating and incorporating their benefits, priorities, and preferences into conservation and decision-making processes. We used focus group discussions, key informant interviews, household questionnaires, and direct observations to explore how local communities in the Rufiji Delta perceive a multitude of MES and factors influencing their perceptions. Sixteen MES were identified by the respondents. Provisioning services were the most highly identified services, accounting for 67% of the overall responses, followed by regulating (53%), cultural (45%), and supporting (45%) services. Poles for building, firewood for cooking, coastal protection, and habitats for fisheries were perceived as the most important MES to sustain local livelihoods, although the perceptions differed between sites. Distance from household homes to mangroves and residence time were significant predictors of the local communities’ awareness of all identified MES. Gender of household heads and performance of local management committees also determined the local communities’ awareness of provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. We conclude that perceptions of MES are context-specific and influenced by multiple factors. We believe a deeper understanding of local stakeholders’ preferences for MES can help strengthen the link between local communities and conservation actors and can provide a basis for sustainable management of mangrove forests.

Does outlawing mandatory retirement reduce public-pension benefit claim?

ABSTRACT Exploiting the 2011 abolishment of the mandatory-retirement provision that had allowed employers to force retirement of their 65-or-older employees in the UK, this paper estimates the effect of outlawing mandatory retirement on public-pension benefit claim behaviour of the elderly through changing their employment and retirement rates. Abolishing mandatory retirement raises public-pension claim rate of non-household-head benefit-eligible individuals by making them retire more, while it lowers public-pension claim rate of household-head benefit-eligible individuals by lowering their retirement rate. On the other hand, the abolishment raises full-time employment rate of the elderly, regardless of household-head status or gender.

Determinants of Urban Poverty in Oromia: A Case Study in Some Selected District, Ethiopia

The study was conducted in south west Shewa zone districts, Oromia National Region, Ethiopia. Stratified sampling techniques were applied in order to obtain a representative sample were selected to collect data by using these strata since in study there were constituted 3 urban areas were selected from a total of 4 towns in Waliso districts. Based on this condition sampling will be conducted separately in each subgroup or stratum. Descriptive statistics and binary logit were employed to determine factors that influence the economic status of households. A sum of twelve explanatory variables for the binary logit model was used, out of which eight variables were found to significantly affect the economic returns of households at 5%. These are: household family size, education of household head, the gender of household head, marital status, age of household head, , income of household head, house ownership, previous residence, and four of the following were at 10% like household health status, household head occupation, dependency ratio and saving of household and the other variables like household health status, household head occupation, and dependency ratio were not significant at a maximum of 10% significance level . The study recommends that the strong negative relationship between income and the probability of being poor point out that there must be a need to consider households income character by government and non-government organization in designing policies targeted to curb urban poverty intervening to household health status, household head occupation, dependency ratio and saving of household. Keywords: Rural poverty, Binary Logit Model, Waliso district. DOI: 10.7176/JPID/56-03 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Demographic factors and perception in rhizobium inoculant adoption among smallholder soybeans (Glycine max L. Merryl) farmers of South Kivu Province of Democratic Republic of Congo

The use of rhizobium inoculants fertilizer in soybean production has been practiced for over a century all over the world, but in Africa, the technology is relatively new. Rhizobium inoculants have been disseminated in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by Nitrogen 2 Africa (N2AFRICA) project of CIAT and later IITA since 2010. However, demographic factors and perception in rhizobium adoption remain unknown. We assessed the demographic factors and perception in rhizobium inoculant adoption among 193 smallholder soybeans farmers of South Kivu Province of DRC. The information was collected in September 2018 and included farms and farmers socio-economic characteristics and farmer’s adoption and perception of rhizobium inoculants. We used Probit model to assess the factors that are likely to influence the adoption and measured the perception using 5-point Likert-type scale. Results indicated that the adoption of rhizobium inoculants was very low in South Kivu (21%) and was highly influenced (P<0.01) by gender of the household head, farmer’s location, education type of household head, the knowledge of nodules roles and the household income. The perception of inoculant by farmers also highly influenced its adoption. Furthermore, farmers strongly perceive rhizobium as an affordable nitrogen source for enhancing soybeans productivity but less available in the market. More effort is needed in farmers’ education about BNF to improve adoption of inoculants. Key words: Adoption, perception, smallholder’s farmers, Biofix, Soybeans, N2 Africa, rhizobium inoculants.

Socio-economic and environmental barriers to increased agricultural production: New evidence from central Thailand

Thailand’s agricultural production has played a major role in enhancing the sustainability of domestic food supplies and successful international exports. However, agricultural production and farm productivity remain relatively low, especially in rapidly ageing high out-migration areas and among small-scale farmers. In this study, we use new household survey data from Prachinburi Province to examine the probability of facing six specific barriers to agricultural production. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and a series of logistic regressions to identify the determinants. The results show that age of household head, off-farm income, farm size, and farm type were all associated with the likelihood of different productivity barriers. Gender of household heads was found to be associated with the probability of farm labour shortage, with female-headed households being at a disadvantage. We recommend that policies should be formulated to address these significant factors in order to overcome or circumvent the different barriers and enhance the livelihoods of the local population.

Analysis of Factors Influencing Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Non-Farm Employment Activities and Their Impact on Households’ Food Security: The Case of Mbire District, Mashonaland Central Province of Zimbabwe

This study investigates the factors influencing smallholder farmer’s decision to participate in non-farm employment activities and its impact on rural households’ food security status in the Mbire District of Zimbabwe. The analysis uses a treatment evaluation model and the associated propensity score matching (PSM) technique, which permits the comparison between the food security status of smallholder farmers who participate in non-farm employment activities and those who do not. Estimation of propensity scores enable us to identify the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ decision to diversify into non-farm employment activities. The results indicate that a number of demographic (gender and education of household head), infrastructural (internet access and distance to the main road) and farm level characteristics (land size, livestock herd owned and productive assets) have qualitative and quantitatively different impacts on rural households’ participation in non-farm employment activities. Further, the empirical analysis confirms that diversifying into non-farm employment activities improves rural households’ food security status. The results imply that non-farm employment activities can be a way out of food insecurity in Mbire district. The study therefore recommends the government and NGOs to induce the rural households to diversify into non-farm activities as they improve their food security status since the climatic conditions in the district are not well suitable for agricultural practices. Keywords: Non-farm employment; Propensity Score Matching (PSM); rural household food security; Mbire district of Zimbabwe DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-22-06 Publication date: November 30 th 2020

Production Economics and Determinants of Carrot (Daucus carota L.) production in Chitwan, Nepal

Carrot (Daucus carota L.) is an important agricultural commodity in the world. A study was conducted for comparative analysis of demographic, economics assessment, and determinants of carrot production between ward no. 11 and ward no. 15 of the Bharatpur metropolitan of Chitwan district. Altogether 80 carrot growers, 40 from ward no. 11 and 40 from ward no. 15 of Bharatpur metropolitan were randomly selected. Pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary information from randomly selected farmers. Carrot growers were interviewed using face to face method in November 2019. Moreover, Two Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) and two Key Informant Interviews (KII) were performed. All the data were entered in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS Statistics 20) and Microsoft Excel (Ms-2013) and analysis was done by using Microsoft Excel, SPSS, and Stata. In the majority of respondents, Poultry manure cost (37.16%) occupied the major portion of the cost of production followed by seed cost (30.18%). The average gross margin per kattha for carrot production found NRs. 4726.62 and the Benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was 1.50. The probability of cultivation of carrot on large scale was found to be 31.12% higher for the male gender of household head and 27% higher for the schooling of the household head. Farmers use the Nepa Drim, F1 variety which incurred higher cost in the seed. Splitting (26.25%) was identified as the most critical problem followed by cracking (21.15%) in the cultivation of carrot. It is recommended that the farmers involved in carrot farming in the study sites should be provided with Subsidy on seed, proper solution of physiological disorder problems and proper technical knowledge for optimizing the use of resources would help to increase the profit of carrot production in the Chitwan district of Nepal.&#x0D; Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 7, Issue-4: 234-241

Assessing the Determinants of Food Security Status in Bangladesh: A Micro-Econometric Analysis

Food security is an intricate issue which includes diverse aspects as well as many linkages. In Bangladesh, food security is tried to be achieved by increasing the production of rice both by employing modern agricultural technology as well as by increasing the area under rice production. Despite the impressive gains in increasing domestic food grain production, problems of food and nutrition security still remain. Bangladesh is yet to achieve comprehensive food security that resolves the problems of inadequate food intake and chronic malnutrition among those who are poor and vulnerable. The main objective of this paper is to the contribution of different factors behind household food security status of 180 households in three Northern districts of Bangladesh. The study area was chosen because relatively little energy consumption data are available concerning this geographical area. The study used both primary and secondary data. Food security status of each household was assessed on the basis of the food security line using the daily calorie intake recommended by FAO. This method has proven to be efficient in measuring food security at household level. Additionally, the use of a logistic regression model identified the factors that plays crucial role in determining the food security status of the households. Results from the food security index revealed that more than 60 percent of households were with food insecurity. In addition, we found that total monthly household income, age of household head, education level of household head, household size, farm size, gender of household head, livestock ownership and quantity of cereal production had significant influence on food security status at the household level.